What an unfamiliar sensation to write the words “lightweight” and “ARRI” in the same headline. But here it is: Camera manufacturer ARRI just surprised us with the announcement of a new cinema camera: The ARRI ALEXA Mini. A small and lightweight, carbon fibre version of their hugely popular ARRI ALEXA cinema camera.

This camera from Arri will finish off what was left of RED in Hollywood. The previous case for RED was the ability to fly their camera body on a variety of drones, jibs, and rigs. Now if a director is shooting on Alexas or Amiras (and who isn't in Hollywood?) and need to get a mobile shot or into a tight space they're going to grab the Mini, not the RED.

As of today, Media Composer | Software allows for native editing of 2K, editing 4K and UHD as well as DNxHR, all part of Avid Resolution Independence. This latest update was announced at Avid Connect Europe 2014 and is all about High-Resolution edit, output, export, and the new DNxHR codec.

Want to make great sounding music? Start off right using many of the same tools the pros use—absolutely free.

Pro Tools | First is simple enough for beginners, yet sophisticated for experienced musicians, enabling you to quickly compose, record, edit, and mix music. Entry to the industry’s most trusted audio workstation has never been easier.

Sounds good right...not so fast. ProTools First offers no compatibility for AAX plugins, sessions are limited to Avid's Cloud storage, and it has no mp3 export option. You can find more information about ProTools First in this article.

It’s been 6 months since the first announcement, this smells like vaporware

The app is very real and works exactly as advertised. But it’s true, we’re behind schedule. When we announced Frame.io in July of 2014 we were overly optimistic about our target release date. It’s a complex app that you will come to rely on for your business. We take this very seriously and want to make sure you can count on us.

I hope that Frame can move from vaporware to an actual shipping product because their take on review and approval looks excellent. But if you need something today, their solution isn't going to get the job done. If you need a review and approval solution today then check out Scott Simmons' post from May 2014. There are quite a few good options out there already.

I spent most of the last week of November working on a job in Final Cut Pro 7; or Final Cut Classic as we seem to call it these days. This was the first FCP7 job I had done in over a year (at least I think as they all run together after awhile). Cutting in FCP7 was at the client’s request and while I have tried to convince them to move to a more modern NLE this job was to be an FCP7 job. It went well and I made a note of five features that I miss when working in other NLEs.

I especially miss the keyboard shortcut editor and the ability to open multiple projects side-by-side. FCP7 had those features exactly right! Here's to hoping FCPX, Avid, and Adobe work those in better in future releases...

We know that the cornerstone of our success in the last 4 years has been delivering the technology professionals need at the right time & price without any sacrifice for reliability & performance in the field. So while we feel everyone’s pressure to have Shogun available, we refuse to release a single sub-standard Atomos feature. We will not treat our community of users as Beta testers and will not release the Shogun until the standard we are famous for has been met.

Well if that isn't a shot at Blackmagic, specifically, and RED more generically then I don't know what is! Though I appreciate them taking the time to perfect the firmware...whether or not they achieve that remains to be seen.

Larry Jordan has a good write up on the most recent Apple FCPX update. The most recent update certainly seems aimed squarely at the high-end post-production professional with MXF support, AVC-Intra additions, and high frame rate fixes. However, his concluding section gave me the most pause:

There will be much more to come. Apple is not turning their back on the application, but releasing new updates and upgrades essentially every few weeks.

The recent growth of Premiere Pro and rapid development cycles from Adobe are an excellent incentive for Apple to keep pace. Competition is a wonderful thing.

While many can, and do, quibble with Adobe's subscription model it seems hard to deny the speed at which Adobe now moves to update and bug fix their software. That has ripple effects across the market - Avid, Apple, Autodesk have to respond to that development speed or risk losing ground. I've not hidden my support and daily use of Adobe's Creative Cloud for my post-production team, but what I support even more is the overall competition. If Adobe pushes Apple, and Apple pushes Avid, and Avid pushes Apple, that's just fine by me. We're the ones who benefit from that competition.